Had Rodrygo not had the flair and flamboyance his Brazilian passport demands, a very intriguing case could have been made for his Indian origins.
A solid signing for Real Madrid, Rodrygo once again has shown his quality this season with top displays in the Champions League catapulting Los Blancos into the Final ahead the likes of Manchester City and Bayern Munich, even bagging the all-important goals against the former.
As difficult as he is to stop on the field from racing away, his origins and nationality are as straightforward to make out, despite shouts of his Indian background.
Born in Sau Paulo, Brazil, Rodrygo Silva de Goes was born to Brazilian parents. His father, Eric Batista de Goes and mother, Denise Goes were both born and brought up in Brazil and in the neighbourhood their son hails from.
Hailing from a middle class neighbourhood, Rodrygo followed the footsteps of many legends of Brazilian football and also his idol, Neymar en route to his ascension at Real Madrid.
Just like the former Barcelona star, Rodrygo started playing football for Santos, one of the most celebrated clubs in the world and breeding ground for Brazilian talents. He even shared the same jersey number as Neymar at Santos.
After his rise in Brazil, his impressive skill set and abilities earned him a dream move to Santiago Bernabeu in 2018 for a massive 45 million euro fee. After a couple of developmental seasons at Real Madrid Castilla, he broke into the first team and has never looked back since.
Even despite his emergence as a key player for Brazil as well, Rodrygo can’t just seem to shake off the allegations of his origins belonging to India or even their South Asian neighbour Bangladesh. It’s also fair to say, only Rodrygo’s to blame for this perennial confusion.
Going by his looks and facial features, the alleged Indian Brazilian looks an awful lot like a Bengali, an ethnicity hailing from the Eastern part of India from the state of West Bengal and just across the border from Bangladesh. It was during his stint with his early moustache, the uncanny similarity came alive.
Fans have come up with an Indian name to compliment his hidden yet unconfirmed Indian Bengali heritage.
It’s also surprising to note he shares the same surname (Goes) as many Indians with Portuguese ancestry hailing from Goa, a popular tourist beach destination in West India. While it’s difficult to establish his origins from within India itself, his Indian links are getting stronger day by day.
With all his efforts for Real Madrid and Brazil, Rodrygo can’t seem to beat the Indian allegations. As it is, his crucial and costly miss in the penalty shootouts against Croatia at the 2022 FIFA World Cup raised some questions about his Brazilian composure.
But if he fails to turn up again, he better be prepared to have dual citizenship.
